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74 Comments
- Trekhawk, on 10/25/2008, -8/+41Hey, when you can write $850 billion checks at the drop of a hat why not spend $320 million to fight an over-hyped virus that's killed fewer people than honey bees?
- inactive, on 10/26/2008, -5/+37i have a better idea... lets invade bird flu... kill their queen and take their oil.
- Seann7656, on 10/26/2008, -6/+27Sweet. Lets just keep pulling money out of thin air! This is so fun!
- rz8472, on 10/26/2008, -1/+12It's not overblown. Basically all it will take for a virulent human form of the virus to procreate is for two virions (one of bird flu and one of human influenza) to coinfect a bird cell and for hybrid H5N1 viruses - with the deadly symptoms of bird flu and the infectivity to humans of regular influenza - to occur.
That, and viruses procreate and thus mutate very quickly, so it should this should not underestimated. What I'm concerned about though is how this money is being spent; it should not be a blank check to the pharmaceutical companies, which have a terrible record on distributing vaccines to the third world. - HappyScrappy, on 10/26/2008, -5/+15What a freakin' scam.
Why are we spending money on this disease which has so far shown no tendency to mutate into a version that is communicable from human to human?
If if if. Ridiculous. - pintomp3, on 10/26/2008, -1/+9it's funny how he was allowed to keep his interests in that company despite the conflict of interest. the revolving door between corporations and government positions will be the end of america.
- Seann7656, on 10/26/2008, -2/+9How come the solution to everything is "Throw more money at it!"
- zoziw, on 10/26/2008, -3/+9They roll out the bird flu boogeyman every fall (just around the time they want everyone getting flu shots even though it doesn't provide protection against the bird flu virus).
- lilhelper, on 10/26/2008, -2/+7Oh, isnt that how they cured AIDS on southpark?
- jtpinhead, on 10/26/2008, -3/+8......................................__................................................
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......................f`-,.........`-,/...*-,___,,-~*....,-*......|...`-,.................. - naturevalleyoat, on 10/26/2008, -0/+5this is an issue congress should be spending money on. only a tiny mutation can create an epidemic; just because we don't know when that is doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying to prevent it. most influenza viruses that infect humans are nonlethal, but it is not so with certain avian strains. even for the "traditional" strains, it hasn't been that long ago since they were a major problem. in 1918-1919, 20-40 million people worlwide died, including 196,000 in the united states. in 1957, an asian flu strain killed 70,000 in the united states. just because congress has been passing ridiculous bailouts lately doesn't mean everything they fund is ridiculous as well.
- indyattic, on 10/25/2008, -4/+9Pffft. This is horse hockey.
- rockstar1o9, on 10/26/2008, -1/+5Sounds like a lot of 'IFs'. I've heard the same thing can happen to HIV and turn it into an airborne virus.
- zippy757, on 10/26/2008, -0/+3"bird flu =/ flu," i.e. bird flu is a nickname...the actual virus is very deadly influenza... it's mortality rate on the low side is 62%. In Penn outbreak two years ago, it was 100% ...
If this gets legs, millions would die. - TheMachine1, on 10/26/2008, -0/+3Just when you thought it could get no worst we are reminded that a super flu could kill millions.
- Checkerd, on 10/26/2008, -3/+6Ice polo?
- secondwheel2, on 10/26/2008, -1/+4Well just to let you guys know, people didn't give to ***** about aids, and look where it is.
Better to take precaution than get ***** over later on - TheGuruStud, on 10/26/2008, -0/+3They can't create a vaccine in time for it anyway. It's a waste of money like the flu shot. Those are for the previous years strain. Dumb ass ***** people are getting those shots left and right. It just helps the virus mutate. Good job, people.
- spyd3rweb, on 10/26/2008, -1/+4At least have enough respect for the Constitution to have Congress declare war on Bird Flu.
- sockpuppets, on 10/26/2008, -4/+6I fart $20 bills, you don't?
- Exzhaton, on 10/26/2008, -2/+4Quote from The Office.
- SemiSarcastic, on 10/26/2008, -2/+4...killing people in Iraq?
- inactive, on 10/26/2008, -2/+4cash rules everything around me, cream get the money, dolla dolla bills yall
- sockpuppets, on 10/26/2008, -4/+61 Billion to the bees! Think of the bees!
- chase001, on 10/26/2008, -5/+7Let me guess? More no bid contracts to Rummy's Pharmaceutical company like the tamiflu scam.
- Pandalume, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2...says the man who is protected in a thousand ways without even knowing it.
- shig, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2Every cure for every disease, every vaccine for every virus, every anti-bacterial breakthrough, has come from private companies doing private research and development to cure ills for profit. That is their business model.
Why should the government subsidize their research with tax dollars if they are going to turn the cure into a profit making commodity?
It is a scam. - nick111, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2@rockstar1o9 if you were old enough to remember 1918 you'd probably think differently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Flu - ensrealissimum, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2Seeing as we'll be probably be borrowing the money from China to do this initially. In the short run they are. Win win for them. They get a problem fixed, and investment return plus interest.
- mshtml, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2Because they know you'll keep working to pay for it.
- minorgods, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2A power point presentation will soon be released linking the birds to WMD's. it will have pretty charts and satellite pictures of canary island
- pudlol, on 10/26/2008, -0/+2Guys, we should spend money after millions of people have died and people are threatening for a cure right now. It's the American Way.
- itsradBrad, on 10/26/2008, -1/+2If avian flu remains as virulent as is currently is in humans when it mutates enough to be transmitted, there is nothing we could possibly do to stop it except perhaps locking everyone up and waiting for the sick to die.
- minorgods, on 10/26/2008, -0/+1Heh. no.
- OneNaturalOne, on 10/26/2008, -0/+1I did what you see there.
- HappyScrappy, on 10/26/2008, -0/+1I know it is still around. It is still infecting humans who work directly with infected poultry and it is still not mutating to become human to human transmittable.
Your "which flu viruses do all the time" is a bit flip (and reminds me of "Real Ultimate Power"). The chances of this or any other virus combining like that are very small. Even the ones that do succeed in doing it don't "do it all the time", it's just that once they do so, they can take root and the new strain spreads rapidly.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_/ai ...
(I'm sure you've already read that info)
I'd rather we spent our time and money on a viral strain which is more likely to affect us, even if the symptoms are a little less nasty. These other strains that have already converted provide a better "lab" too in that they are already transmitting themselves from human to human and this means we can do more useful studies on how we can affect their behavior and spread. - douglasr007, on 10/26/2008, -3/+4Bird flu still exists? Wait...did it ever exist in the first place?
- RoboJesus, on 10/26/2008, -3/+4That's all? We should put MORE money toward this.
- Pandalume, on 10/26/2008, -0/+1Because people like to be paid for their work.
- glowfood, on 10/26/2008, -0/+1I see what you did there.
- spuddly, on 10/26/2008, -1/+2I'll tell you why: the worst flu pandemics have resulted from avian influenza, just like this one. The "asian flu" started in wild ducks which later recombined with a human flu virus and went on to kill 1-4 million people (including 70-80k in the USA). The "hong kong flu", a decendant of the asian flu, popped up 10 years later to kill another 30k people in the USA. The spanish flu killed something like 40 to 50 MILLION people worldwide.
Just because you haven't heard about it in the news lately doesn't mean it has gone away. It has already shown the ability to infect and kill humans so all it has to do is recombine with a virulent human strain (of which there are MANY, and which flu viruses do all the time) and there will be a massive and deadly pandemic.
The people who think that this is some kind of scam don't know what they're talking about. When you have large bodies of scientists all over the world saying this is an important threat, then you should believe them. - nick111, on 10/26/2008, -1/+2I know a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but please... there's no need to be as careful as you are being.
Live a little:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_influenza
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Flu - secondwheel2, on 10/26/2008, -1/+2Not linked to a single death?
Do you ever watch the news?
It kinda killed a couple hundred people and a couple million birds
Have you ever done grade 6 biology?
Well sir, you are my retart of the day - crazzy88ss, on 10/26/2008, -2/+3Don't we have more important things to be spending our tax dollars on?
- mitch37, on 10/26/2008, -1/+2How can digg be so negative about this. Deadly Virus + Government Funding = Good. Nothing else. Diggs POV never ceases to amaze me.
- protodon, on 10/26/2008, -1/+1I'll be honest I could care less about this disease AND I've been to countries that have had it AND I have a flock of chickens, goose, ducks. So let's take that money and fly me to the moon!
- zippy757, on 10/26/2008, -1/+1Mitch37...because the majority of posters as 13 to 18...
- arasari, on 10/27/2008, -0/+0We need the bird flu to thin out the human population, why suppress mother nature? just think, if 50-60% of the population was wiped out, Housing would be so much cheaper, in addition, it would wipe out 50-60% of politicians as well since the bird flu don't discriminate.
Come on Bird Flu, do your Thing! - 3gibberish4q57, on 10/26/2008, -1/+1I'm no longer alarmed about it so we shouldn't spend money on it.
- BlitzTips, on 10/26/2008, -1/+1What, does this stupid thing come up every year? 50% of off CIPRO now shut the hell up. 320 million. Ridiculous.
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